Court of Justice 22 December 2008, C-553/07 (College van burgemeester en wethouders van Rotterdam v M. E. E. Rijkeboer.)

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This Advocate-General's Opinion addresses a preliminary reference from the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State) concerning whether a one-year limitation period under Netherlands local authority data protection law for access to records of personal data disclosures to third parties is compatible with Articles 6 and 12 of Directive 95/46/EC. The Advocate-General opines that data relating to processing (including disclosure records) constitute personal data under Article 2(a) of the Directive and are subject to the same deletion time-limits as underlying personal data, with Article 12's right of access taking precedence over Article 6's deletion obligation in the Directive's internal hierarchy. The one-year period is argued to be incompatible with Articles 6 and 12 where the data subject was not notified of the disclosure, was not informed of the applicable time-limit, or was not given sufficient details about the identities of recipients, with the burden falling on the controller to demonstrate that national provisions and administrative practices afford an adequate level of information to enable unconstrained exercise of the right of access.AI